


Coincidence and Likely Stories

by mrgay



Series: Coincidence and Likely Stories [1]
Category: Lupin III
Genre: Ace spectrum character, Drinking, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, POV Jigen Daisuke, Recreational Drug Use, Sexual Tension, Trans Male Character, same w/ fujiko, zenigata is briefly mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:50:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21536119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrgay/pseuds/mrgay
Summary: Though he hated to admit it, Jigen liked to be comfortable. He looked at the thin layer of mist hugging the bases of the trees and wished he was smoking out the window of their cosy apartment back in Tokyo. He shuffled his toes a bit in his boots, begging for their circulation to come back. Taking one last drag of his dying cigarette, Jigen snuffed it out underfoot and returned to the RV.---Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon go on a road trip heist in Northwestern Canada.
Relationships: Ishikawa Goemon XIII/Jigen Daisuke, Ishikawa Goemon XIII/Jigen Daisuke/Arsène Lupin III, Jigen Daisuke/Arsène Lupin III
Series: Coincidence and Likely Stories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1594861
Comments: 16
Kudos: 66





	Coincidence and Likely Stories

It had been Lupin's idea to come here. Of course, it was always Lupin's idea. One of his mania fuelled dives into whatever section of world history that piqued his interest that week. He'd found something. A 17th century musket of some sort made out of solid gold, buried in a long dead British colonizer's tomb in Northwestern Canada. “A totally guilt-free heist,” he said, Jigen had snorted at that.

Now Jigen trudged down the side of a dirt road. Goemon had to piss. They had rented an RV for the heist. He smoked and trudged. It was autumn, and the leaves had been pummelled by heavy rain enough times that they had turned into an oatmeal-like paste along the trail. _ Yuck _ , but at least the rain had stopped long enough for him to smoke a dart, _ thank God for that _. He stopped at the edge of a ditch and looked out at the forest lining both sides of the trail. A strange, almost agoraphobic feeling balled up suddenly in his throat; almost all of the heists they had pulled in the last three years had been in metropolitan areas, felt alien to him to now suddenly be in perfect wilderness. Almost uncomfortable. Though he hated to admit it, Jigen liked to be comfortable. He looked at the thin layer of mist hugging the bases of the trees and wished he was smoking out the window of their cosy apartment back in Tokyo. He shuffled his toes a bit in his boots, begging for their circulation to come back. Taking one last drag of his dying cigarette, Jigen snuffed it out underfoot and returned to the RV.

“Where were you?” Jigen hauled himself into the passenger seat of the RV. Lupin had the ignition on, keeping the inside warm.

“Smokin',” Jigen grunted, pushing his cold hands into his armpits.

“Aww, is someone grumpy?” Lupin chided in a baby voice.

“Fuck off man, and turn the air con on, you're fogging up the windows.”

The RV was a bit of a jalopy. Jigen felt the overuse of wood panelling to be in poor taste. There were two modestly sized beds, one large enough for two (above which hung a considerably water damaged painting of a glacier), and another more conservative one. On the adjacent wall was a built in, albeit broken, coffee machine next to a tiny kitchenette. It stank of stale cigarette smoke–Jigen wouldn't complain about that–and carpet cleaner. An aging western man's idea of a psychedelic blanket hung as a makeshift curtain between the front cabin and the living quarters. Goemon sat on the smallest bed, his sandaled feet planted firmly on the floor. Hands placed palms down on his knees. Eyes closed. Looking serene. Jigen felt a small smile creep up on him as Lupin put the RV in drive.

Jigen considered the heist at hand with an amount of caution. He _ did _ enjoy the theatrical element of heists–the disguises, the sneaking, the bombastic getaway car chases–he could never get himself to enjoy the improvisational element to them when things went sideways, and they _ always _ went sideways. But Lupin loved it. Lupin revelled in the lead-up to a prestige. That was his bread and butter. To Lupin, the goal of any heist had very little to do with actually stealing anything–it was the planning, the research, the travel, the improvisation he had to do when he inevitably fucked himself over _ somehow _ –that had attracted him to thieving. Goemon too, he seemed to enjoy ruthlessly training himself to attain near-impossible goals. And when he achieved them (he _ always _ did), he was never satisfied. The masochist. Jigen knew the samurai secretly loved the unpredictable element of any heist just as much as Lupin did. Jigen wished he could enjoy discomfort as much as his two companions. He wished he could feel the existential marvel he should have felt while he was alone surrounded by an enormous forest, a forest that would most likely live on for hundreds and hundreds of years after he was dead. But all he could think about was his numb toes and the relief of a blast of nicotine after four hours of bumping along a trail. He was just a guy with a gun, after all. _ I’m turning into such a city slicker _. Jigen couldn't stop himself from letting out an audible sigh.

“Jigen.”

“Hmm.” The air conditioning had cleared away the condensation on the windows. He put his feet up on the dash.

“What's up,” Lupin had noticed him brooding.

“Baby's cranky,” he said flatly.

Lupin cackled with laughter. From the backseat he heard a single chuckle from Goemon.

He knew they all loved each other deeply. _ Platonically, of course _ . Jigen directed his attention out the window quickly at the trees passing by. He never said it, it wasn't really how he functioned. Too uncomfortable, he'd rather show it through his actions than say it. Goemon was like that too, stoic as hell. Both he and Lupin knew the guy was a huge softy. Lupin, on the other hand, practically did for sport. A day didn't go by where Lupin didn't make a cartoonish proclamation of his love for any of them, even Pops. Jigen blamed the thief’s father’s side of the family, _ Fuckin’ French people, no sense of personal space, always giving “bisous” or whatever. _ God, he _ was _ grumpy.

Lupin suddenly rapped his knuckles on the steering wheel, signalling his boredom, then reached over and flipped on the radio. A tinny CCR tune sputtered out of the speakers; it did enough to fill the silence.

“Feels like a real road trip!” Lupin chirped, “This is going to be a wild boys night out.”

“Yeah, uh,” Jigen mumbled, “Do you know where this thing is?”

“Of course,” he paused. Jigen looked at Lupin. He noticed a patch of overgrown stubble just under his jawline, he must have missed it while shaving, suddenly transfixed.

“... More or less. Not many roads this far north.”

Lupin glanced over at Jigen; he’d caught him staring. Jigen looked back out the window. Goemon’s head peeked out from behind the cabin’s curtain.

“I hope this vehicle came with snow tires, Lupin.” Goemon said, “It would be unwise of us to venture so far into the wilderness in such a climate without them.”

“Why does everyone think Canada is covered in snow all the time!” Lupin was tapping his fingers along to the music, “Sure it gets cold here in the winter–”

“It’s cold_ now _,” Jigen huffed.

“–but autumn in British Columbia is the rainy season, there’ll be at least another month of miserable weather before any snow. Also, Goemon, you don’t even know how cars work.”

“Someone’s been reading his Lonely Planet Guides.”

“Someone’s been sulking and hasn’t been a very good driving buddy!” Jigen grinned at this, reaching over to grab Lupin in a headlock. Lupin tried to duck and ended up swerving dangerously on the trail. He giggled mercilessly as Jigen locked his arm around his neck and pulled him into a fierce noogie.

“If both of you don’t stop I’ll commit jumonji giri.”

***

Jigen was keeping watch by the lake’s shore when Lupin and Goemon came out of the tomb. He slipped his gun back into his underarm holster.

“Well?”

“Tomb’s empty.” Lupin marched over to the RV and reefed the door open, Goemon in tow.

“What?” Jigen scrambled up the lakeside bank back to the RV and got in the passenger’s side.

“Tomb’s empty.” Lupin turned the key in the ignition, put the thing in gear, and began backing out of the small clearing.

“No musket?”

“Nope.”

“Oh.”

It was easy to tell Lupin was pissed. No grand adventure to be had here, no booby traps or Pops to keep them on their toes. Jigen glanced at Goemon in the back, he was sitting cross-legged with a thin frown curving his lips, Zantetsuken cradled in his arms.

“Gimme a smoke,” Lupin demanded, the RV trundled down the trail, retracing their steps from earlier. Jigen obeyed, though that morning when picking up the RV from the rental place Lupin forbade Jigen from smoking inside the car. He wordlessly slid a cigarette from the box in his jacket pocket in one fluid movement, popping it into his own mouth to light it. Bringing his lighter up to the end of the cigarette, he noticed Lupin’s eyes stray from the road and onto him. He took a deep drag, and plucked it out from between his lips and offered it to Lupin, who bowed his head slightly and took it in his own mouth. The pads of Jigen’s fingers ever-so-slightly brushed Lupin’s chin as he began to take his hand away. Lupin caught Jigen in a stare. His expression–_ God damn it _–was unreadable. Jigen felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

“Eyes on the road.” he grunted, Lupin exhaled a plume of smoke out his nostrils, almost comically, like a steam engine.

They drove in silence for almost an hour. Eventually, the trail lead them back to the Alaska highway, the RV heaved as Lupin brought his foot down on the accelerator and brought them back to cruising speed. They continued north.

“Um, sorry, but,” Goemon poked his head into the cabin again, “what are we doing now?”

Lupin, chewed the end of his cigarette (it was his fifth of Jigen’s). A sign caught Jigen’s eye just up the road. Lupin saw it too. As they got closer he could make out the words, “Irish Pub, next right.”

“This.” Lupin swerved the RV right, down a narrow paved road off the highway.

***

Was it a town? Jigen wasn’t sure. Again, maybe he’d been around cities too long. After ten minutes of unchanged landscape, facades of buildings began to line the street, like the ones in old western films. The “town” seemed completely deserted. After a few minutes of driving down the narrow road, Lupin suddenly pulled into a parking lot. Almost completely full. And there it was; a similar facade-like exterior with a faded green awning which simply read “Irish Pub” in white.

Car in park, Jigen lifted his feet off the dash, “Care to enlighten me?”

“What, you need the math on getting sloshed?” Lupin stomped on the e-brake and slipped his keys out of the RV’s ignition and into the pocket of his sports jacket. Jigen looked back at Goemon as Lupin jumped out of the driver’s seat and slammed the door of the cabin. Goemon shrugged.

It was as if the entire town had all decided to congregate here, inside the ragged looking Irish public house. The atmosphere inside was thick with idle chatter, friendly, boisterous chatter. Cutting through the din–the clinking of thick glass mugs and the occasional whine of a wooden chair leg scooting along linoleum. It had much of the décor regularly appropriated by American steakhouses–only this was the real deal. Ancient farm equipment and skiing gear hung from the walls with a certain ambivalence, as if they could be a decorating choice or could have been stored here while they weren’t being used. The sharp smell of cedarwood met Jigen’s nostrils. They all seemed to see it at the same time.

The golden musket hung unceremoniously above the pub’s bar.

_ Here it comes, _ Jigen sighed, and leant backwards on the now closed door as Lupin fired up a long, stuttering, “Gyuhuhuhuhu” giggle. It was poetry, how this scenario always panned–out this way for Lupin. He cracked a low smile and tipped his hat over his eyes, nearly overtaken by the desire to swing an arm over Lupin’s shoulder and laugh with him, two of them like a pair of goofy teenagers.

“Hi guys, need directions?” a woman waved over to them from behind the bar. She stepped out from behind it, tea towel in hand, and weaved between the tables and over to them. She had a round face with sharply arched eyebrows. The corners of her eyes tapered into crows feet, despite the fact Jigen was sure she couldn’t have been older than her early 30s. Her sleek dark brown hair was tied back in a low bun, her skin a light warm brown, not unlike his own.

“I assume you aren’t here to soak atmosphere, I can tell you’re from out of town.” _ That was a kind way of putting. Out of town, just a short jaunt away, across the entire Pacific ocean. _

“You nab that musket, lady?” Lupin gasped, catching his breath after the hysterics, “we actually would love to grab a table.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, who’s asking?”

“Your three newest patrons are,” he split into a cheshire cat grin, “I just spent most of my day failing to steal that thing.”

“The hell would you want it for?”

“I’m a professional thief.”

“Hah! Okay,” she was unconvinced, “That guy’s grave has been on Lheidli T’enneh land without permission for over four hundred years, when I was a dumb teenager I figured I’d dig up that old timey gun and nail it to the wall in here to drum up business.” Jigen decided he liked her.

Lupin smiled, impressed, he always was a sucker for other people with the same Robin Hood streak, “Lupin,” he extended a hand.

“Ah, so you’re _ French _-French, not Québec-French? Just assuming, since your name isn’t Jean-Pierre or something.” She studied him, smiled, and shook his hand. Jigen realized he hadn’t considered Lupin’s English to be particularly accented until now.

“Somewhat.”

“Bev.” she led them to a booth with a sturdy four person table. There were spots across the top where the finish had been worn completely off from people’s elbows. Jigen and Goemon mumbled their names.

“It’s funny to have strangers come in here and find out our dark secret.”

“And that is?”

“That ‘Irish Pub’ is actually run and frequented by the local Dakelh First Nations population.”

Lupin plopped himself in the booth, “Well, we ate at a ramen place owned by a man named ‘Jarod’ for lunch today,” he snached up the drink menu on the table as Jigen and Goemon settled down next to him, “to be honest, nothing surprises me anymore.”

“I’m sure ‘Jarod’ had some interesting concepts for ramen,” she handed them all food menus (Goemon politely declined).

They ordered drinks–beer for Lupin, straight bourbon for Jigen, and, much to his delight, warm sake for Goemon–and chatted with Bev. It had been a while since he had had to speak English to such lengths–they had been shooting the shit in Japanese together all day–the language felt odd and uncomfortably nasally in his mouth, in spite of the fact he considered himself fluent. More fluent than Goemon, anyway, but less adept with idioms than Lupin. 

He knocked back a few, and despite priding himself as at least a mid-to-heavyweight, the lack of depth to Jarod’s take on ramen earlier had left Jigen’s stomach feeling woefully empty. He got drunker faster than he expected. A comfortable, fuzzy drunkenness that made his mind wander, made him look at the rosiness flushing Goemon’s cheeks–now there was a cute lightweight–made him look at Lupin animatedly sharing stories with Bev. Now she believed he was a thief after he’d rattled off some of their greatest hits, both he and Goemon chiming in occasionally. She was the town’s nurse, and moonlighted at “Irish Pub”. She would see the same people at the clinic at the pub that night. The constant cycle of the same faces throughout the day reminded Jigen of growing up in rural Hokkaido; it was like that in small towns. Pubs weren’t really for drinking in tiny towns (although Jigen and many others certainly partook), they were the only place in town where you could find everyone in one place. He’d been divorced from that life for so long even since before he’d met Lupin. Lupin with the tiny patch of stubble he forgot to shave. _ There I go again. _ He thought, he felt too dough-brained to stop himself. Lupin’s bantering with Bev reminded him of how Lupin would natter with Fujiko. He took another sip of bourbon. Sometimes he envied the casualness of their friendship, the same way they were casual with sex. Less like a handshake and more like a jovial clap on the back. Jigen and Lupin were casual with each other, but not in the same way Lupin was with Fujiko. Jigen wished Fujiko was here, so she and him could argue like siblings. He felt Lupin’s hand creep onto his thigh from under the table and give it a squeeze. Lupin’s head lolled to one side, his hand cupping his chin, eyelids half mast, looking at Jigen.

“Relax, sweetheart,” he winked, he had noticed Jigen’s silence. Jigen felt the heat creep up his neck and onto his face. He had noticed the gunman brooding for the second time today. Only Lupin could call him that and make it sound completely ambiguous in nature.

“You two,” Goemon scoffed, “are so embarrassing.”

Jigen tried to regain his composure, “Guess we’re just having a camping trip now,” he grunted, knocking back the last of his (fourth? Fifth?) bourbon.

Lupin grinned, “Let’s get out of here and have a sleepover.”

***

Goemon sat, legs dangling off smallest bed, joint in hand. They had parked just outside of the small roadside town in an outcropping of trees. Lupin lay, jacket off, on his belly atop the largest bed. Jigen lounged beside him, his head felt like it had been stuffed with foam. Comforting, to finally quiet down some of the buzzing that had been in his head all day. He closed his eyes. Goemon started saying, “It’s funny–” and then never finished his sentence. He opened his eyes. He closed them again. _ Goemon looks so cute. _

“Hmm,” mused Goemon.

“What is it Goemon, dear?”

Goemon looked at the joint in his hand, and handed it to Lupin, “I think…” Jigen opened one eye. He just realized his hat was off. Did he leave it at the pub? He saw his hat over by the kitchenette. _ There it is. Phew. _ “... I would like very much,” Goemon looked over at the two men on the other bed deliberately.

“To kiss both of you right now, if that’s alright.”

Jigen felt time grind to a halt. He could hear his heart thud in his ears, like it was trying to escape with a battering ram. Goemon looked at Lupin. Lupin wheezed mid-toke and started hacking until tears formed in his eyes.

The wheezing quickly turned to laughter, “You dog!” he howled, “I totally thought I was gonna have to roll up my sleeves and do the propositioning.” Goemon looked as though he might melt. Lupin flipped over on the bed, slid feet-first onto the floor, and stepped over to Goemon, standing between his hanging legs. Leaning down, Lupin slipped a hand behind Goemon’s neck and brought their lips together softly. Goemon didn’t pull away, and Lupin guided the younger man onto his back. Jigen watched, dumbfounded and unable to process what was happening. Goemon seemed remarkably calm, and from what Jigen could tell, extremely receptive to Lupin’s affections. Goemon hummed into Lupin’s mouth as he kissed him harder. Goemon trailed his fingers up Lupin’s sideburns and into his hair, his bony fingers finding their way through it tenderly. Lupin broke away and gazed over to Jigen, “Your turn.”

Before he could comprehend what was happening, Goemon was in his lap, Lupin sucking a mark into his collarbone, who had undid his tie? Goemon kissed him, and he eagerly kissed back. Lupin removed his own tie while kissing up Jigen’s neck. Goemon shifted his weight off Jigen’s lap and allowed Lupin to slide his body next to the gunman’s. Lupin grabbed both his hands and placed them on his hips, he could feel an incredible warmth in both his and Lupin’s bodies. Goemon’s hands reached up and knotted themselves in Jigen’s hair as Lupin kissed his mouth, slipping in his tongue experimentally. It felt nice. Both Lupin and Goemon took turns kissing him mercilessly. He was dizzy, punishably infatuated with the two men on top of him. His hands migrated from hovering just above Lupin’s ass to Goemon. He rolled over on top of the samurai, straddling his waist, Lupin began slipping Goemon’s robes down off his shoulders. Jigen felt heat in his belly and groin. He embraced Goemon.

“Okay, I’m done,” Goemon said simply from under Jigen. Jigen detached his mouth fully in surprise.

Goemon politely removed himself from underneath Jigen, and rolled his shoulders forward so the fabric of his kimono draped over his chest again.

“This was very nice, thank you, I think I would like to sit outside by myself for a while.”

Jigen sat up and looked at Lupin, who looked at him. Jigen looked back at Lupin, “Oh-uhh, of course.”

Goemon dipped his head and smiled, “I give you two my blessing for whatever it is you want to do to each other after I leave,” he blushed, “I’ll be back later.”

Lupin smiled, “You’re lovely.”

Goemon shrank into his kimono, flustered and blushing harder. He stepped out of the RV, closing the door gently behind him.

They sat in silence for only a brief moment before Jigen grabbed Lupin by the shoulders and kissed him roughly. It softened into a sloppy, breathless struggle as he crawled on top of the lanky man in his arms, grinding his hips over Lupin’s lap, sliding a thigh between his legs.

“Wow,” said Lupin, “Fuck much?”

“Not.” Jigen tugged at the buttons on his shirt, “Recently.” He could see the hairs trailing down Lupin’s chest, they were slightly sparser than Jigen’s. _ God he looks really good. _He palmed the bulge in Lupin’s slacks, Lupin caught his mouth with his. Jigen slipped an index finger into his mouth. Lupin closed his lips around it, dragging his tongue along the underside and then tracing over the fingernail, looking at Jigen. Head feeling full of wet cotton, Jigen pressed his developing hardness against the erection in Lupin’s pants. Lupin hummed in approval, his voice, usually chirpy and irritating, now sounded stupidly intoxicating to Jigen. He unbuttoned Lupin’s pants. Lupin removed Jigen’s dress shirt. Lupin had seen him without a shirt many times, surely he knew…

“You are fucked up hot,” said Lupin breathlessly. The scars had faded over the years and were a thin white line now and lay flat across his ribs. Lupin guided Jigen’s hand under the waistband of his underwear. Jigen fisted his hand over Lupin, pumping slowly with his calloused hands under the thin cotton. The thief moaned and jerked forward, resting his head in the crook of Jigen’s neck, sucking on the tender spots he marked earlier. He then began pawing at Jigen’s belt.

“You know I’m, ah, slightly anatomically different than you,” Jigen said, breath hitching, “right?”

“I know, bud,” he grinned, his genuineness taking Jigen by surprise, “I don’t care about the difference if you don’t. Do you?”

“No.”

“Alright then, fuck me in the ass already! Damn! It’s the 21st century, we have the technology to achieve pretty much anything.”

“You… brought, ah, ‘equipment’ for me?”

“Yeah, you never know!”

“You are a horrible pervert.” Jigen kissed him.

***

The two men lay curled up next to each other. They had shared a cigarette together after the fact and passed out. Barely awake, Jigen could hear Lupin’s steady breathing. He closed his eyes and heard soft, sandaled footsteps approach the camper. Goemon closed the door as quietly as the RV would allow, and crawled into bed beside Jigen. Jigen welcomed the new body heat next to his, and slid an arm over Goemon wordlessly. Goemon sighed dreamily and Jigen could feel his whole body relax, sinking into the cheap foam mattress. Under the covers, Jigen felt the comfort of the two men’s body heat washing over him. Before sleep took him, he heard the tender sound of a soft rain beginning to drum on the roof of the RV.

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first time i've written fanfiction. i havent written prose for probably around 7 years so uh, here's me goin ape. that's the mr. gay promise.


End file.
